Nintendo president Satoru Iwata says that the industry needs to make more interesting games if it wants sales to improve.

The economic downturn is only partially to blame for the recent slump in the videogame industry, says Nintendo president Satoru Iwata. In his opinion, the remainder falls squarely on the shoulders of developers and publishers for releasing boring games.

"My belief is we should not blame the bad economy for the cause of slow sales of video games," he said. "The slow sales must be due to the lack of great software that everyone wants to buy. We have not shown off the great attractions of whatever we are selling. This is not the problem of Nintendo alone, but the entire video game industry."

Iwata said that the industry had to be very conscious of how people perceived it, and that new ideas could help expand the industry: "[S]omething that is really fresh can make our industry grow. The important thing we have to tackle is making attractive games and marketing them well toward the end of this year ... It's more difficult for us to come up with something new and different and show people how different we are. The whole industry has to recognize that."

With both Microsoft and Sony now looking to attract a more casual demographic, the way the industry presents itself is likely to undergo some significant changes in the coming months. Hopefully this new focus will bring in the fresh ideas that Iwata, and plenty of others besides, believe are so important.

Someone give this man a pat on the back, I can see where he is coming from about the industry being rather bland as of late in some retrospect. At the same time there have been some really great games that have come out of developers in the past year or so. Either way I would like to see some new ideas out in the field. Cause I used to spend well over $150 a month in games ... now I would say I spend that much in about 4 or 5

Well I think the issue has been a combination of the economy, and raw greed on the part of the gaming industry which has become corperate and is setting increasingly high margins for what it considers to be a success.

"We are in a game slump, despite the industry making billions in profit".

That's ridiculous, but sort of shows a mentality where success is judged by degrees of growth rather than simply making a profit. If you don't grow as much as is projected, that's seen the same as losing money.

Such are my thoughts.

What's more consider that they I think it's these massive advertising campaigns as well, combined with the way reviewers have become little more than mercenary promotional vehicles. Pretty much every game is portrayed as "the best thing ever", at least until it comes out. People are becoming more resistant to slick marketing, and with the high price of games, combined with an industry that wants to give people less control over their purchuses, it doesn't matter if you produce a game that is the equivilent of the second coming, gamers have become pretty wary.

Nintendo is actually kind of the king of originality. Yes it reuses franchises but at least they made the franchises, and they keep them fresh. Plus, they were the first to commit to motion controls, and the first to do 3D without glasses XD

Nintendo did admit it was partially their fault. 2008 and early 2009 was a serious dry spell for Wii and DS too and in fact across the industry, all platforms nothing really stood out for me and more than before I held of buying games to wait for them to fall even lower in price. Probably because I valued them so little and was not very keen at all to play them.

Nintendo did admit it was partially their fault. 2008 and early 2009 was a serious dry spell for Wii and DS too and in fact across the industry, all platforms nothing really stood out for me and more than before I held of buying games to wait for them to fall even lower in price. Probably because I valued them so little and was not very keen at all to play them.

But Nintendo at least are trying to correct this now, E3 2009 was a DISASTER, but look at their E3 line-up this year:

Nintendo did admit it was partially their fault. 2008 and early 2009 was a serious dry spell for Wii and DS too and in fact across the industry, all platforms nothing really stood out for me and more than before I held of buying games to wait for them to fall even lower in price. Probably because I valued them so little and was not very keen at all to play them.

Therumancer:Well I think the issue has been a combination of the economy, and raw greed on the part of the gaming industry which has become corperate and is setting increasingly high margins for what it considers to be a success.

"We are in a game slump, despite the industry making billions in profit".

Considering that FF13 has sold 5 million worldwide, God of War 3 has sold 2.5 million, Modern Warfare 2 has sold 18 million, Red Dead has 3 million, Heavy Rain has 1.3 million and Uncharted 2 has sold 3.5 million, I'm at a loss for what the hell this dude is talking about.

Maybe it's because the only Nintendo games that are raking in sales still are ones that have been out for over a year already.

Therumancer:Well I think the issue has been a combination of the economy, and raw greed on the part of the gaming industry which has become corperate and is setting increasingly high margins for what it considers to be a success.

"We are in a game slump, despite the industry making billions in profit".

The only one who says that is you.

SOME companies are doing well. Others are losing millions of dollars.

Losing millions of revenue. They're still making money. When a business "loses money" it just means that they're revenu is not as high as last quarter's, they're still in the green.

OT: I agree with Iwata. Perhaps a bit ironic coming from the company which relies MOST on it's established IPs, but hell, their games are fun.

This shouldn't be a surprise. Since Iwata became president he has made sure that Nintendo try to make games and systems with new concepts that have a very broad appeal. With things like Mario Kart Wii and NSMB Wii they have also started to sell these new broader audiences on more traditional video game experiences.

Other companies have successes with things like Guitar Hero which they, let's say, exploit until they seem very boring then have no new concepts that are good enough in the wings to replace them.

FloodOne:Considering that FF13 has sold 5 million worldwide, God of War 3 has sold 2.5 million, Modern Warfare 2 has sold 18 million, Red Dead has 3 million, Heavy Rain has 1.3 million and Uncharted 2 has sold 3.5 million, I'm at a loss for what the hell this dude is talking about.

Maybe it's because the only Nintendo games that are raking in sales still are ones that have been out for over a year already.

Some games might be so expensive to make and market that 2 million sales is not enough to make money. Other games might make the dev a fortune if they sell 100k.

The real problem with a lack of "fresh games" is how much money they have to spend to get sales.

Therumancer:Well I think the issue has been a combination of the economy, and raw greed on the part of the gaming industry which has become corperate and is setting increasingly high margins for what it considers to be a success.

"We are in a game slump, despite the industry making billions in profit".

The only one who says that is you.

SOME companies are doing well. Others are losing millions of dollars.

Losing millions of revenue. They're still making money. When a business "loses money" it just means that they're revenu is not as high as last quarter's, they're still in the green.

OT: I agree with Iwata. Perhaps a bit ironic coming from the company which relies MOST on it's established IPs, but hell, their games are fun.

Nintendo did admit it was partially their fault. 2008 and early 2009 was a serious dry spell for Wii and DS too and in fact across the industry, all platforms nothing really stood out for me and more than before I held of buying games to wait for them to fall even lower in price. Probably because I valued them so little and was not very keen at all to play them.

On your list, only Epic Mickey is a new game. The rest are remakes in 3D, remakes of old games on new consoles ("new" consoles) and sequels nobody even wants anymore.

Sequels "nobody wants any more"? Metroid is a LONG awaited 2D sequel. It will have been half a decade since a new Zelda came out and it is HUGELY anticipated. Remakes may be unoriginal but people DO still care about them, love for Goldeneye is still strong, along with other Nintendo classics like Zelda and Star Fox.

See, something doesn't have to be original for it to be GOOD! You know; exciting, fun, engaging.

COD4 was a sequel yet very distinct, unique and fun; Team Fortress 2 also a sequel yet is not held back by that at all. GTA4 was effectively a remake of GTA3. Nothing wrong with drawing on established franchises and genres, especially if it means they are more likely to be fun and satisfying to play by refining rather than attempting "continuous revolution".

I think there is a temptation to be overly-cautious about sequels after COD and Resistance and Halo, sequels just seem to be "pumped out" at a rate that prevents them achieving their potential. But all the sequels I've mentioned are long awaited and have long been in development also remakes fondly remembered with a great desire to be replayed.

Mind you, I'd like to add that Nintendo is not alone, Sony is delivering the goods as well with an incredible 2011 line-up.

Therumancer:Well I think the issue has been a combination of the economy, and raw greed on the part of the gaming industry which has become corperate and is setting increasingly high margins for what it considers to be a success.

"We are in a game slump, despite the industry making billions in profit".

The only one who says that is you.

SOME companies are doing well. Others are losing millions of dollars.

Losing millions of revenue. They're still making money. When a business "loses money" it just means that they're revenu is not as high as last quarter's, they're still in the green.

OT: I agree with Iwata. Perhaps a bit ironic coming from the company which relies MOST on it's established IPs, but hell, their games are fun.

Nintendo has had no trouble making games that are fun, even when it comes to pseudo fitness games like Wii Sports and Wii Fit. I'm more willing to bet this is a stab at Namco-Bandai for blaming Nintendo for the failure of their (piss-poor) games for the Wii, not to mention the other developers who just can't be bothered to elevate their games over the level of cheap novelty.

Gormers1:Eh yeah cause its always the new and innovative games that sells...

He said fun, actually.

Iwata has a point. The newest game I still play today is Team Fortress 2 because it's different in a good way.

Yeah, but being all three still doesn't mean good sales. How many people passed on Beyond Good and Evil? Gamers are a fickle lot who demand freshness, and yet crave consistency to the point we completely ignore what is new.